Ukraine gets cryptocurrency donations after invasion by Russia; $5 mn in Bitcoin, Ether received

Ukrainian officials are directly soliciting crypto donations, adding to crowdfunding efforts that have raised more than $5 million in Bitcoin, Ether and other tokens since Friday. 

Ukraine’s official Twitter handle, as well an account belonging to the country’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, shared details of the crypto wallets on Saturday. Victor Zhora, one of Ukraine’s top cyberdefense officials, confirmed to Bloomberg that the tweets and the wallet addresses were accurate. 

The addresses posted by these accounts have received more than six hundred donations totaling more than $731,000 in less than 24 hours, according to information available on the wallets and data from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

“The total value of cryptocurrency donated since the invasion began now stands at $5.1 million,” Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson told Bloomberg News by email. Robinson said the median donation was around $95 worth of crypto.

Bitcoin was trading around $39,282 on Saturday, with Ether hovering near $2790.

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun shared multiple posts in support of the fundraising effort, including encouraging Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to “join hands to rally support for the Ukraine relief,” and saying that he would be “happy to match” Buterin’s donations. Sun didn’t immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for comment.

Buterin, who was born in Russia and emigrated to Canada, had previously posted in support of Ukraine to his more than 3 million followers on Twitter. Buterin urged caution about the risk of hacked or compromised social media accounts, saying in a now-deleted tweet that anyone considering donating should “exercise extreme vigilance.” He subsequently posted that people should “continue to be vigilant, and always be slow and careful when sending irreversible crypto transactions.”

Several other crypto entrepreneurs and VCs have been using Twitter to rally and express support for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion started on Thursday. Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer of FTX, previously said on Twitter the company was giving $25 to each Ukrainian with an account on the exchange.

Tomicah Tillemann, who left his position at A16Z to become the global policy chief for Katie Haun’s new crypto fund, said on his Twitter account that “defending free and open societies may be the best thing we ever do with our BTC and ETH.” Tillemann didn’t immediately return a request for comment. 

Celsius founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky said on Saturday he had sent a second donation in Ether to the Ukraine wallet, which as of Saturday afternoon held at least 126 of the tokens, or around $352,000 at current prices. Mashinsky didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.